What's your favorite network and why?

Sam Vimes

Lord diablo wrote:

the poll so far says Voda is the worst!!!

Why is that they would have the best coverage and the most money to spend on upgrades, i am not with them so i cant comment on there Customer service. there rates are ok?!? there roaming agreements are 2nd to none, the hanset choice is one of the best, so what exactly is it about Voda people dont like?

I am with o2 i think they are very reasonable, no major complaints. I like the way they do little offers every now and again like this 1c text and call on the weekends now.

voda is the worst because they charge considerably than the other networks. and their customer care are trained to lie if you ask for an unlock code. i can't fault them on their handsets or roaming agreements though

ken90

Vodafone - Best coverage, I can't afford to miss a call.

Factor in 3's very expensive roaming and THEN compare charges.

Personally for business, one missed oppertunity, could equal 12 months of call charges.

Sam Vimes

ken90 wrote:

Vodafone - Best coverage, I can't afford to miss a call.

Factor in 3's very expensive roaming and THEN compare charges.

Personally for business, one missed oppertunity, could equal 12 months of call charges.

3's roaming is pricey but i don't really go abroad. did you not read the thread either? 3 uses vodafone's coverage. so three has access to all vodafone's masts plus their own

1huge1

plus 3's 3G coverage is considerably better than vodafones
3 has something like 78% of the population while vodafone is just under 60% as far as i know

as for roaming well my father only found out after he cam back from the UK on vodafonethat with the no roaming anymore in the UK thing that you had to call them and set it up and he got charged a bomb
while with 3 its done automatically
anyway with all this thing with the european union trying to cut down on european roaming charges it will be no time time until 3 will be cheap in other european countries

Sam Vimes

1huge1 wrote:

plus 3's 3G coverage is considerably better than vodafones
3 has something like 78% of the population while vodafone is just under 60% as far as i know

as for roaming well my father only found out after he cam back from the UK on vodafonethat with the no roaming anymore in the UK thing that you had to call them and set it up and he got charged a bomb
while with 3 its done automatically
anyway with all this thing with the european union trying to cut down on european roaming charges it will be no time time until 3 will be cheap in other european countries

yeah i thought that was funny myself. they could have easily just automatically done it but they went to the trouble of setting up a special number and manning it so thousands of people would have to ring in and set it up. they did it so things like that would happen imo

byte

Vodafone for me usually have better service, though they're probably not the cheapest. But for me, service is more important than pricing.

Blaster99

ken90 wrote:

Vodafone - Best coverage, I can't afford to miss a call.

Factor in 3's very expensive roaming and THEN compare charges.

Personally for business, one missed oppertunity, could equal 12 months of call charges.

Vodafone certainly has very nice roaming deals on other Vodafone networks, and if that's important then they're probably untouchable.

It sounds like 3 has poor roaming agreements, never mind being expensive. I've only used them in the UK as well as Ireland so far and that's been fine. Heading to other destinations soon so we'll see if I end up cursing them.

Gonzo

mobile coverage is terrible where I live, I had 02 for years but the signal went to one bar about 2 years ago and is still like that so I moved to Vodaphone and now get pretty decent coverage. Meteor barely works in my area as well.

jrey1981

Commander Vimes wrote:

did you not read the thread? they have full coverage

Not where I live they dont.

1huge1

jrey1981 wrote:

Not where I live they dont.

now your forgetting what you said which was that vodafones coverage was class and you wouldnt move to 3 unless they improve their coverage
but if 3 has bad coverage in your area so does vodafone

Gavin

I'd like to go to move to 3 from vodafone after reading some of the comments, but they don't have the phone I'm after, a K750i.

I'm sick of vodafone, the prices are expensive, and after being a reliable bill paying customer for more than 5 years, I get cack offers on the upgrades. The K750i is 130euro upgrade with no discount on vodafone and 70 on meteor.

I'm slightly confused about the Meteor billing though. Talk 400 is 60 euro with 400 minutes.. But are these 400 minutes free to any land line, or is it that the 400 minutes are simply charged at 15c a minute as opposed to 20c a minute..

The website seems to imply that it is the latter, which really is useless.

Gav

Blaster99

The SE K750i is not a 3G phone. 3 only sells 3G phones. They do the K608i, which is the phone I have. It's good (probably the best one they sell now) and has every feature I need.

I think Meteor means to say that x hundred minutes are included and then they charge x cent per minute above the bundle.

dub_skav

Just to clear something up about roaming agreements between the operators.

I have read the thread and people seem to think that Meteor have the same coverage as O2 and 3 have the same or better than Vodafone.

Both of the above statements are untrue.

Meteor use O2 where they have absolutely no coverage - this is mainly in the West. So if you are in an area with very bad Meteor coverage you will still use that meteor signal, it is only where Meteor have categorically stated that they have no masts that you will use O2.

3 use Vodafone's signal in much the same way, only where they themselves have no coverage. For example they no longer use Vodafone at all in Dublin and surrounds. This means that if you live on the edge of Dublin - Bray for examle, as one poster stated - then you will use 3's coverage no matter how patchy not Vodafone's.

Just thought I'd clear that up as a lot of people seem to be pushing misinformation.

So for all the posters that think coverage and reliability are more important than pice (I would be one of these) then O2 or Vodafone are the only options.

Pythia

Verb wrote:

I'd like to go to move to 3 from vodafone after reading some of the comments, but they don't have the phone I'm after, a K750i.

I'm sick of vodafone, the prices are expensive, and after being a reliable bill paying customer for more than 5 years, I get cack offers on the upgrades. The K750i is 130euro upgrade with no discount on vodafone and 70 on meteor.

I'm slightly confused about the Meteor billing though. Talk 400 is 60 euro with 400 minutes.. But are these 400 minutes free to any land line, or is it that the 400 minutes are simply charged at 15c a minute as opposed to 20c a minute..

The website seems to imply that it is the latter, which really is useless.

Gav

Ok, basically with the Talk plans, you are signing up to buying a certain amount of minutes every month. So with Talk 400, you are signing a contract to buy 400 minutes a month for 60e, working out at 15c per minute. These mintues can be used on calls to any Irish number, be it land line, same network or other network. Once you go over the amount of minutes you've bought in advance, you get charged at 20c per minute.
If you don't use up your minutes, you still get charged the 60e or whatever, as that's what you've signed for. Hope that helps!

Blaster99

dub_skav wrote:

Just to clear something up about roaming agreements between the operators.

I have read the thread and people seem to think that Meteor have the same coverage as O2 and 3 have the same or better than Vodafone.

Both of the above statements are untrue.

Meteor use O2 where they have absolutely no coverage - this is mainly in the West. So if you are in an area with very bad Meteor coverage you will still use that meteor signal, it is only where Meteor have categorically stated that they have no masts that you will use O2.

3 use Vodafone's signal in much the same way, only where they themselves have no coverage. For example they no longer use Vodafone at all in Dublin and surrounds. This means that if you live on the edge of Dublin - Bray for examle, as one poster stated - then you will use 3's coverage no matter how patchy not Vodafone's.

Just thought I'd clear that up as a lot of people seem to be pushing misinformation.

So for all the posters that think coverage and reliability are more important than pice (I would be one of these) then O2 or Vodafone are the only options.

You would be correct and incorrect. I have pointed this out too on occasion but couldn't be bothered to repeat it again. I think you're definitely correct with Meteor in that they only use O2 in specific cells, but it's not true with 3 from what I can tell. My 3 phone somehow got locked onto 2G service only for a while so I was using Vodafone's network in Dublin instead of 3's. I would conclude from this that if you have no 3 signal, it goes over to Vodafone's network so you will not be without signal anywhere. That's not to say that 3's signal is as good as Vodafone's at all times. It's not a problem in Bray where there's plenty of 3 coverage, but as an example it is more of a problem in Greystones where 3's coverage is more marginal and you will often see a weak signal. But the service works.

I think the upshot of this is that 3 (with Vodafone backup) actually has better coverage than O2 and possibly also Vodafone. I used to drive into a few O2 blackspots on common routes where the call would just die. I've never had the same problem with 3.

Cabaal

I have to say compared to Vodafone three seem to have much better coverage in the likes of Waterford, was up in my girlfriends house during the weekend and noticed she can hardly get any signal in the kitchen but yet I have a full 3G signal from Three.

Sam Vimes

jrey1981 wrote:

Not where I live they dont.

well then vodafone has no coverage there either. all networks will have some black spots and from the look of your location i don't think you're living on O'Connell street. it strikes me as one of those "mountains for miles" places

dub_skav wrote:

Just to clear something up about roaming agreements between the operators.

I have read the thread and people seem to think that Meteor have the same coverage as O2 and 3 have the same or better than Vodafone.

Both of the above statements are untrue.

Meteor use O2 where they have absolutely no coverage - this is mainly in the West. So if you are in an area with very bad Meteor coverage you will still use that meteor signal, it is only where Meteor have categorically stated that they have no masts that you will use O2.

3 use Vodafone's signal in much the same way, only where they themselves have no coverage. For example they no longer use Vodafone at all in Dublin and surrounds. This means that if you live on the edge of Dublin - Bray for examle, as one poster stated - then you will use 3's coverage no matter how patchy not Vodafone's.

Just thought I'd clear that up as a lot of people seem to be pushing misinformation.

So for all the posters that think coverage and reliability are more important than pice (I would be one of these) then O2 or Vodafone are the only options.

while it is true that they only use vodafone's mast where they have no coverage, they keep voda coverage until they put up a mast of their own so they would have coverage just as good as voda. i think meteor's agreement is different. they just have no intention of building masts down the country.

i've never had any problems with 3 coverage and i've been all round the country with it.

you're right that 3 don't use voda in dublin anymore. i set my phone to 2g only and i got no coverage at all.